he fest continues with a whole lotta Che Guevara.

Che
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Benicio Del Toro, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Demián Bichir
Che was easily the most polarizing movie at this year’s Cannes film festival. Critics either hailed it a stunning epic or dismissed it as an overblown failure with no one sitting in between. The main reason this happened because when it was at shown at Cannes, Che was still being billed as a single 4.5 hour film. It’s now two movies that will be released separately. This is really too bad because despite the butt-numbing the two films actually play off each other quite well. The first half is the Che Guevara bio-pic that everyone would expect, it’s a bright and exciting telling of Che’s triumph in Cuba that combines footage of the revolutionary fighting in the jungles with a recreation of the famous speech that he gave to the UN. However, the second film is quite different. Shot in more subdued colors with less lively camera work, it’s apparent that something is wrong from the first shot. This movie depicts Guevara’s failed attempt to bring the revolution to Bolivia and it’s a much more tragic film that shows how the man’s best characteristics lead directly to his downfall. This darker story flavors the first in such a way that the two movies are inseparable. Viewed in a single sitting the project can certainly be overwhelming, but I’m not sure if either film will play as well individually. The ideal way to see this movie is in one long sitting with an intermission, but sadly that probably won’t happen outside of a festival setting. Ah well, at least I finally know what’s going on with those T-shirts everyone wears.